Dion Hamill Illustrations

There was always that one person in high-school who could just draw the heck out of anything. Give them a pencil and a sheet of paper they would draw whatever crazy thing the class could imagine.  Everyone would be huddled around a desk at the start of class, before the teacher would arrive. Watching in amazement as the kids pencil, in a flurry of graphite dust, conjured up their favourite comic character or drew a grotesque caricature of the angry math teacher, flinging some poor kid by the scruff of his pants down the hallway (true story). I was one of those kids once.  If someone asked me to draw something I would draw it.  Maybe part of me wanted to show off or maybe part of me was challenging myself.  Either way, the challenge of drawing from imagination pushed me out of my comfort zone.  It also made me realise what I could and could not draw well. To improve our art, I think one key element and probably the starting point to any good piece of art, is obse...

Thumbnails are reduced sized images of a video or photo.  Used to give a quick representation of a file or provide an easy way to recognise an image. You see, we're a very visual centric bunch, we artists.  And when it comes to organising, demonstrating and storage, it's far easier to glance over an image and spot what it is you're looking for as an image.  Rather than have to read even the smallest amount of text. As an illustrator we use thumbnail sketches all the time to convey ideas and problem solve designs.  How many times have you heard a famous illustrator, architect or designer tell a story about the time they drew a sketch on the back of a napkin for a client at a dinner party and the rest was history...? Even though the thumbnail is small, it is powerful.  You can quickly work out composition, lighting, mood all in just a tiny space sometimes no bigger than... well, your thumb. Thumbnails are quick, spontaneous ideas from your mind to paper to see wha...

Recently I started a community page to further help illustrators and artists with their artistic goals for 2023 -  https://courses.dionhamill.com/communities/Q29tbXVuaXR5LTM0ODIy I'm developing weekly lessons that students can dive into easily by watching short video tutorials such as the one linked at the bottom of this video. I've been painting book covers of all types for 20 years and there are a lot of upcoming artists who I know would love to do the same. So, what I want to do with this months first lesson is give you an inside view of how you can take an idea from its conceptual stage right up to your final artwork. By the end of this month you’ll have one working method in an illustration technique that you can apply to your future work, whether it be personal, for a portfolio or professional work. I’ve broken these lessons down into 4 weekly 1 hour classes to give you enough time to follow along, implement the ideas and still have a life. Okay, so todays first lesson we...

For some weird reason, when I started painting at art college I thought mixed media was bad. I need to clarify.  I was taught it was mediocre.  You were either painting in acrylic or oil.  Using pencil or charcoal.  You were a sculptor or 2D artist.  You couldn't do a mixture of these and you sure as heck weren't supposed to mix them together. But why...? I still don't know the answer to this day. I do know that each lecturer seemed to have a primary focus or skill.  They were usually dedicated to one medium such as oil painting.  They were hired as the oil painting teacher and thats what they did.  They lived and breathed it so they just taught oil painting.  We'd spend an hour or two each day with them then shuffle off to our next class to learn sculpture from another lecturer who was dedicated to only working in their particular medium. It wasn't until I left art college and started working as a professional illustrator that I even heard a...

When I was little I had a book called "Space Wars Worlds and Weapons" by Steven Eisler . I still have the book 40 years later, but I never actually read the book until about 4 or 5 years ago.  All I ever did when I was a kid was trace the hell out of the cover artwork. It had this really cool image of a space ship streaking across the front, and in the background was this massive space station orbiting some alien world. I think it was that book that sparked my interest in the idea of becoming a book cover illustrator without even really knowing it was an actual job you could have. I would trace it daily.  And the book has the indentation on the cover to prove it.  I'm actually surprised the dust jacket didn't get ripped.  They sure knew how to make them back then. Fast forward to today and I'm still getting inspiration from that book. Now, I didn't just trace that book, I traced a lot of books.  I also would trace VHS covers of videos we'd hire on the week...